


An Ashen Memory

by Lwoorl



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Child Abuse, Death of a pet, Fluff and Angst, Fluff with sad ending, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-25
Updated: 2019-05-25
Packaged: 2020-03-14 18:36:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18953449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lwoorl/pseuds/Lwoorl
Summary: "What is her name?" He asks his mom, not really letting his eyes leave the animal. It's the first time he's seen one so close, the first time that he can pet one, he's always wanted to. She's so soft.OrDamian's mom gives him a cat. Set when he's 6-7





	An Ashen Memory

"Damian, I was told you have been seen trying to lure some of the feral cats that wander around this area inside the building."

"I'm sorry." Damian stands straighter and looks down, his face pink. He didn't think it was a big deal, calling the animals he sees so often through the windows inside, after all, he only did so in his free time, and it's not like any of his attempts actually succeeded, all the felines too aware of their instinct not to get close to where the Demon's head lives. The worst thing he can think of that he did was stealing fish from the kitchen to do so, and even then he didn't actually _steal_ it, the cooks saw him and told him he could take it...

But, if his mom thought it was necessary to call him out about this it likely means he was doing a bad thing, right? He closes his eyes and awaits the earful he just knows is coming, all he can do is hope it won't go accompanied with actual punishment.  

"Oh, my little Alexander, there's nothing to apologize for." Is what he gets instead, as he opens his eyes when he feels her place a hand on his little shoulder. She's smiling, her face close to his as she bends down, and Damian can feel himself relaxing. "I called you for this." She moves away from him, gesturing for a servant to come inside the room. The man who enters holds a extrange sort of box between his arms, it has little holes on the sides and one wall is replaced by a metal grid. He places it on the floor, opens it, and the tiniest kitten Damian's ever seen walks outside.

He sends a questioning glance at his mom, waiting for her permission. When she nods, he walks closer and examines the creature.

She's all gray, from the snout to the tip of the tail, and even her eyes are just as ashen as her fur. He rubs a tentative thump through her neck and is rewarded with a little, high pitched meow.

"What is her name?" He asks his mom, not really letting his eyes leave the animal. It's the first time he's seen one so close, the first time that he can pet one, he's always wanted to. She's so soft.

"That's up to you to decide." Her mom gently answers, while passing a hand through his hair  "She's yours now."

Damian raises his head, his eyes moving from the cat to his mother and then to the cat again. "Really?!"

"Consider it an early present for your seventh birthday." She smiles down at him.

He spends some seconds looking at her, waiting for it to reveal itself as a lie, but it doesn't come.

He picks up the little gray cat by the flanks and pulls her closer, wrapping her in his arms, hugging her. "Clemencia." He decides, looking at the little gray eyes that haven't stopped staring at him ever since she came out of her box. "Your name is Clemencia." Little Clemencia tips her head to one side, as if asking for confirmation. Damian nods emphatically and buries his nose in her neck. She smells like shampoo.

 

He spends the following two days nose deep into books, reading all he can about taking care of a pet. It's both hard and easy, the servants provide him with most of the things he needs, kitten litter, scratching posts, etc, the only thing he refuses is the cat food. He frowns at the package, puts one of the brown things inside his mouth and spits it out. _No pet of him will eat this processed garbage!_ is what he proclaims as he matches into the kitchen. It takes a while, but finally he's able to feed Clemencia with a mix of fish, chicken and rice that he can approve of.

The servants offer to take care of her, of course, but he doesn't let them. "It's below the heir of the demon to clean a low animal." One of them says, he breaks her hand while yelling something like "I will take care of my own pet!" In part it's because he wants to make his mom proud, this likely is a test after all, for taking care of another living thing. But mostly, it's because he really likes the cat and doesn't trust others with her. Doesn't want to share.

Clemencia spends the first days cowering in Damian's room, he lets the door open and tries to lure her with food but she doesn't want to come out. It takes him another two days to figure out she's just really shy, and then spends half a month carrying her in his arms anywhere he goes, bluddled into a blanket, introducing her to every person he sees, and by the time she finally gets confident enough to wander the grounds by herself Damian's personally told more than half the staff "If anything happens to her I will kill the responsible myself." enough times no one dares to even look at her wrong.

It takes a while, but slowly Clemencia starts gaining confidence. She still will run away at the sight of a new face, and seems to only let Damian touch her, but once she gets acquittance with most of the servants on the north wing she finally gets the message that she can do pretty much whatever she wants to, as everyone's pretty much terrified if they so much as step on her tail the young master is going to bloody murder them. Damian even encourages her, happy she isn't scared anymore, and after _even his mother_ (For Damian's never ending surprise) tells a teacher to "Shut up and let my son take care of his pet." after he complains of her being too loud, she pretty much gets free access everywhere, for all the staff's infinite dismay. The only employee who seems to genuinely like the cat is Miss. Willowey, his teacher for German and French, who lets her sit on Damian's lap during lessons after discovering that lying to the kid about how if he learns enough human-languages he will eventually understand animal-languages too does the trick for getting him to put his all into the class.

Her favorite place is the internal garden, and Damian finds himself more and more spending his free time there, sketching plants in his notebook as Clemencia sunbathes. If he so much as tries to stand up, the cat will bite his ankles until he gets back down, unhappy to lazy around unaccompanied. Once, Damian leaves while she's sleeping, tiptoeing as to not wake her up, and half an hour later Clemencia's running through the hallways screaming like a dying goat, and doesn't calm down until Damian pets her and carried her in his arms for the rest of the day, muttering apologies into her fur. She's a needy and spoiled bratcat like that. Damian absolutely adores her.

One day there's a thunderstorm and Damian hides under his blankets. It's stupid, it's childish, but it scares him.

Usually, he would go with his mom, get into her bed. She would put her arms around him and sing a lullaby until he passes out, but right now she's taking care of a mission in Argelia, so there's not much else he can do other than huddle in his room and try not to cry.

The pillow dips beside him. He raises his eyes, and finds the cat. Clemencia doesn't like sleeping on his bed, he's tried to convince her to do it, he really did, but she prefers sleeping in a box. It's not even the expensive bedding they bought for her, just a box. He tried putting a pillow inside once and she threw it from a window. She doesn't like sleeping on soft surfaces, it seems.

They exchange a look, and then she moves so she's resting against Damian's chest. He traces fingers over her spine as she walks in a circle and shrinks into a thigh ball next to him, her face against his collarbone. She starts to purr.

Damian pulls from the blankets until they're both completely covered with them, only a tiny patch of black hair and a gray tail sticking out of the covers. He buries his face in her back and puts his arms around her. Damian tightens his hold every time the sound of lightning gets to his ears, he knows it must be uncomfortable, having him squeezing her like that, and yet Clemencia doesn't even move, just digs her face deeper into his body. They sleep like that all night, and all the stormy nights after that, even after his mother returns, she lets the cat climb into her bed alongside the kid. It's nice from her, Damian thinks, he's grateful for that.

Finally, one day, she brings him a rat. Her gray mouth stained on red as she leaves the trophy at his feet. Damian knows what this is, it's her trying to feed him as if he was a helpless baby, as if she didn't know he's able to kill with his bare hands. He frowns and reaches for the corpse. He isn't particularly fond of rats, but he doesn't hate them either, and seeing the marks of Clemencia's teeth on its little rat neck makes him wince. It's mangled and messy, missing the tail, as if she was playing with it. She probably was.

He half thinks about scolding her, telling her not to do it again, but then when he looks down he finds a pair of very big gray eyes, expectating and innocent, waiting for approval. Damian sees himself in them, holding a knife as he stands over an adult man, waiting for his mother to praise him, because he proved he loves her, that he would do as she says.

This is like that, he realizes, he would never ask Clemencia to kill, would never force her to do anything she really doesn't want to, and yet she, by herself, went to bring him a proof that she cares. Happily and eager, not doubting for a second. He still remembers his first kill, his hands were shaking all day, and yet she went and killed something, because she loves him. And he loves her too.

"Good girl." He mutters, scratching her under the ear. She leans into the touch and lets go of a delighted purr. "You did well."

They're cut from the same cloth, he sees that now, the red on her snout matches the red on his hands. They're… What did that book call it? "We're partners in crime." He solemnly says, as he runs his hand from her head to the tail. "So we're together in this, right?"

She keeps bringing him little animals and Damian pets her and praises her, even when the dead bird she gives him once almost makes him cry. And always makes sure she isn't looking when he disposes of the corpses.

This is what having a real friend feels like, he decides.

 

If she stopped moving it would be nice, he thinks, as he sketches Clemencia in his notebook, she's lying on her back, her tail moving back and forth.

She grew up really big without him noticing, a true adult cat. Now that he thinks about it they're going to have to operate her soon, it's supposed to be a quick procedure, he read once, he hopes it doesn't hurt.

Without any warning she gets up and walks between him and his drawing, sitting on his lap, stepping all over the page, smuggling the graphite.

"That's mean." He huffs. Somehow as she grew big she also got conceited and smug. He thinks back about her first week here and it's hard to believe that scared little ball of gray fur grew up into this cat who likes to steal from the kitchen. "Tt." He sighs, puts the sketchbook aside and reaches to pet her, he can't deny her anything.

"It seems like you've become very close." His mom comments, appearing at the door. She has a nice smile on her face, Damian smiles back.

"Yup! She's the best cat!"

"I'm glad. Tomorrow it will be a year since you have her, is that not true?" She muses,  coiling a finger through her hair. Damian nods. He doesn't know when Clemencia was born, but he knows the date she came to him, so he's decided that will be her birthday. He already has everything prepared, all the toys wrapped, hidden where she can't find them, and told the staff in the kitchen to prepare a cake she can safely eat.

What has him most excited of all is a gift he's thought of for a while. It's a pet bag, apt for traveling. Color gray, just like her, decorated with flowers.

He's been thinking about it ever since the first time she came with a rat. He didn't have to leave his home this year, but he will likely have to go in some mission soon, to study or to prove himself, he doesn't know when but it's got to happen eventually.

When that moment comes, he really doesn't want to leave her, all alone in this big palace. She gets all angsty if he takes too long in the bathroom, how would she deal if he left for a month?

Of course, he wouldn't take her to anything too dangerous, but he's sure he can keep her safe for most missions, maybe she could even be useful, he's been wondering if cats can learn how to track, just like dogs. It would be nice, having her with him. After all, they're partners in crime aren't they?

So he got that bag. He hasn't brought up the topic with his mom yet, but he hopes she will say yes. She likes Clemencia too, surely she would understand, won't she?

"Damian, remember what I told you?" His mother brings him out of his daydreaming, walking towards him, kneeling next to him.

"You have told me a lot of things." He replies, not sure where this is going. His mom giggles and messes with his hair.

"Of course. Of course. It's what I told you about attachments." She cheerfully says, taking a dagger from between her clothes, placing it in Damian's hands. "About how they make you weak." She points at Clemencia with her head, the cat still accommodated between his legs.

Damian's smile freezes, and he moves his head between the two of them, from her mom to the cat to her mom again, the realization slowly creeping into him.

"You know what to do." His mother tells him with a smile, pitching his cheek before disappearing through the door. Damian's hands tighten around the handle of the knife.

As if sensing his emotional state, Clemencia curls against him, like she did in all those stormy nights.

Putting a paw on his shoulder, she licks his nose.

**Author's Note:**

> Please remember to comment!! It really really really means a lot!!!  
> 🙏🙏🙏


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